Testifying before a Senate committee on Friday, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said he never discussed changes or reduction in postal service with President Trump.
According to Axios, DeJoy told the Senate Homeland Security Committee:
“There has been no changes to any policies with regard to election mail,” DeJoy told the committee.
“The Postal Service is fully capable and committed to delivering the nation’s election mail fully and on time.”
DeJoy said earlier this week he would suspend planned changes until after the election. But in some areas, the damage appears to have been done. the Los Angeles Times writes of chaotic situations in California post offices.
”Six weeks ago, U.S. Postal Service workers in the high desert town of Tehachapi, Calif., began to notice crates of mail sitting in the post office in the early morning that should have been shipped out for delivery the night before.
“At a mail processing facility in Santa Clarita in July, workers discovered that their automated sorting machines had been disabled and padlocked.
“And inside a massive mail-sorting facility in South Los Angeles, workers fell so far behind processing packages that by early August, gnats and rodents were swarming around containers of rotted fruit and meat, and baby chicks were dead inside their boxes.“
Postal workers tell the Times that these are the consequences of cutbacks in staff hours and the removal of sorting equipment.
DeJoy, a Republican mega-donor, broke with Donald Trump when he said Americans should be able to mail in their ballots. Politico writes:
Notably, DeJoy did not echo Trump’s false attacks on the integrity of mail-in voting, pledging that “the Postal Service is ready today to handle whatever volume of election mail it receives this fall.” DeJoy said he personally votes by mail and supports the concept.
“I think the American public should be able to vote by mail,” DeJoy told lawmakers.
